As TSX tumbles, loonie nudges closer to 80¢ US

TORONTO — The Toronto stock market’s main index closed lower on Friday, driven down by energy stocks as crude-oil futures declined.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 81.51 points at 15183.13, with the energy sector losing 1.4 per cent and consumer discretionary stocks falling 0.97 per cent.

The telecom sector was up 0.44 per cent, while gold companies inched 0.13 per cent higher on a rise in bullion prices.

The Canadian dollar was trading at an average price of 79.69 cents US, up 0.23 of a cent.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 31.71 points at 21580.07, the S&P 500 index declined 0.91 points at 2472.54 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 2.25 points at 6387.75.

Andrew Pyle, a senior wealth adviser at Scotia Wealth Management, said the drop in U.S. stocks came in spite of strong economic data this week.

“It’s an interesting decline because if you look at the economic fundamentals coming out of the States this week, they generally were positive or better than expected — retail sales, housing starts,” said Pyle.

“It’s a week where the fundamental picture actually looks a little brighter.”

Investors might be running out of steam due to the political tumult in Washington, he added.

“The premise going into this year with a Republican White House and Republican Congress was that things would happen fairly quickly — from health-care reform to, more importantly, fiscal reform, tax reform,” Pyle said.

“That’s not happening, so that’s why we’re starting to see investors getting a little disappointed and losing patience,” he said.

The September crude contract was down $1.15 at $45.77 US per barrel and the August natural gas contract was down 7.3 cents at $2.97 US per mmBTU.

The August gold contract was up $9.40 at $1,254.90 US an ounce and the September copper contract was up nearly one cent at $2.72 US a pound.